Month: June 2022

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Drowning Kind

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Jennifer McMahon

I live by a small lake. I’ve never feared it until I read this book. The idea now is to stay away from the water. 

Jennifer McMahon does it again with The Drowning Kind. Such a wonderfully magical, haunting story full of intrigue and suspense. I read this in under 24 hours and I’m not even upset about any sleep I lost. 

Jax is a young woman mourning the loss of her estranged sister, who struggled with mental health issues. This loss leads her to her grandmother’s home, a place Jax and Lexie grew up in. The house is situated next to a pool believed to have magical powers. Family history is explored as Jax discovered the pool’s relationship with her family going back to her great grandparents who made a wish to the pool in exchange for a child. Jax finds out what Lexie did just before her death – the pool gives and takes in equal measure. 

What I loved about this book: 

  1. The story felt original and well plotted. The pace was excellent. Dual timelines told in perfect timing (no pun intended) left me with a complete picture as the past and present converged by the end of the book – a technique I particularly enjoy. 
  2. Inanimate objects given a life of their own. Another favorite of mine. The pool as well as the house and the land, even the hills behind the house (Lord’s Hill and The Devil’s Hill) were allowed names and personalities all their own. It was flawlessly done. 
  3. THE ENDING!!!! Chilling, shocking and so sad. And yet, it worked with the story. I think I would have been disappointed any other way. 

What I didn’t like about this book: 

  1. It’s made me think twice about those walks around the lake next to where I live. 
  2. I’ll miss going swimming. 

If you’re looking for a book to provide a good amount of creep-factor, read this! Then go read everything else by Jennifer McMahon. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Ghosts of the Forbidden

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Leanna Renee Hieber

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Castle Bridge Media for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was…..disappointing.

I’ve read a lot of what Leanna Renee Hieber has to offer and have loved her previous work. I found her writing to be atmospheric, emotional, ethereal and haunting. She seems to be born to write gothic horror stories.

But this book wasn’t like that. It felt flat, rushed, preachy and weak.

What I enjoyed:

  1. The initial ghostly story line was lovely. A rich heritage with a good background to it.
  2. The settings. The Glacier and Denny mansions had character all their own and breathed along with the people inhabiting them. Glacier Mansion especially seemed to be waiting and expectant, wanting to be released from whatever hold the Denny Mansion had on it. The surrounding village being affected with winding streets held its own within the confines of the surrounding trees and rocks. It was very atmospheric and set the tone well for a good ghost story.
  3. The pacing of the story was at a good clip. No lagging or waiting around much for a conclusion.

What I didn’t enjoy:

  1. Flat characters and very little emotional depth. I’m not used to that from this author. I’m used to having an emotional attachment to the folks in Hieber’s books and I didn’t get any of that. Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about Lillian or Camile or Nathaniel or William. Bethany and Carmen seemed to be just there but they also had no real substance.
  2. Character relationships. I sorta could buy the instant relationship between Lillian and Nathaniel because of William and Camille although the whole idea of the latter reliving their lives through the former was a bit unbelievable. But anything else felt contrived and forced.
  3. I’m not a fan of being preached at. I certainly don’t mind when a book includes LGBTQ+ characters when it feels natural and it makes sense to the story. This did not. The characters representing were preachy to the point of distraction. It felt more like the author was making a statement that felt forced instead of part of the story. Not a fan at all.

All in all, this was a good effort but I expected much more from this author based on past work. This didn’t cut it for me and I was left disappointed.

My rating: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Lieutenant’s Girl

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Shari J Ryan

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pearl Harbor meets The Notebook.

Those are vibes I got reading this book by Shari J Ryan. This is the story of Elizabeth Salzberg, a young Jewish girl living in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks. Her dad is a lieutenant on base and very protective of his family since losing his wife. Elizabeth, wanting to make a difference, is studying to be a nurse when Pearl Harbor is attacked. She enlists shortly afterwards and is shipped overseas where her courage is tested as she witnesses horror after horror.

As a huge fan of Shari Ryan, I was surprised to find I didn’t LOVE this book. I didn’t hate it or even dislike it but I didn’t LOVE it like I’ve loved her other books.

Here’s what I really enjoyed:

  • The character growth of all the characters in this story. They all were affected by the war and what they’d witnessed and were forever changed by it.
  • The writing was real. Real emotions. Real scenic descriptions. Real noises. I heard and felt it all.
  • We got a complete story. Beginning to end. Watching Elizabeth grow in this story reminded me very much of watching Rilla grown in LM Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside.

Here’s what I didn’t enjoy:

  • The dual timelines. Most of the time, I enjoy it but in this story, I found it distracting. It really was a little too much like The Notebook and honestly, while I never read the book, I’m in the minority that hated that movie. (I also hated the movie Pearl Harbor.) For some reason, I had a hard time keeping the family members all straight so it really didn’t add anything to the story to have Elizabeth’s current story being told while her past was unfolding.
  • The pacing of the book. It felt unsteady to me. At times, it lagged and then it was fast forward and then we were in the present for a short time and then in the past where it would lag and then fast forward. I could just be a “me” issue but it made it difficult to read.

Overall, this was a nice book and a good story. I wish a few things had been different and it didn’t seem to fit in with the storytelling I’d grown accustomed to by Ms. Ryan but it was enjoyable.

My rating: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

How To Make Friends With the Dark

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Kathleen Glasgow

I lost my mom unexpectedly 4 years ago. Every unspoken thought, every emotion I couldn’t name or couldn’t face, every fear and anxiety unvoiced all came floating to the surface for me in this book. I can’t remember a time when I’ve highlighted or annotated so much. In fact, I’ve never annotated any book I’ve ever read outside of for a class.

It was for these very reasons I found myself unable to turn the page yet I couldn’t stop myself from reading on. Kathleen Glasgow reached into my heart, took all my grief and allowed it to manifest in this story. Oddly enough, and without planning it, I read this just around the time of the anniversary of losing my mother.

A few highlights resonated with me:

“I don’t understand how things keep going when she has just stopped.”

The weirdest thing in the world to me was driving home from the hospital and not really understanding how no one else was affected by this but my family. For everyone else, it was just a regular, every day Friday and they were doing what they’d always done. For me, however, my whole world just shut down.

“I want to hurt everyone right now. I want to break things so the world looks like how I feel inside…”

I remember going to Kohl’s to buy a blouse for Mom to wear to her funeral. The lovely cashier told me to have a wonderful day. I remember fighting the urge to punch her in the face. My mother just died. And she wasn’t supposed to so I wasn’t sure how I was going to have a good day, good week, good month, good year, good life. Of course, I gave a weak smile, took my bag and left.

“I need my mother to come get me, to save me from the fast that my mother is dead.”

This is one of those gold nuggets I knew I felt in the earliest stages of grief but didn’t have words until I read this book. I prayed for this many times. It’s the only prayer that was never answered.

And then there’s….

“I miss my mother so much right now it’s loud inside me, like the worst thunder, the kind the shakes the windows, shoves the side of your house, makes you feel unsafe.”

It took two solid years and moving closer to family before I finally felt safe again. It’s a new experience for me. Only when I felt safe was I able to begin to heal.

I almost feel like this should be required reading for anyone who has lost something, especially unexpectedly. Grief is long and terrible and deep and painful and has its own timeline. You cannot rush it, push it, skip over it or wish it away. It is inevitable. It will let you know when it’s done with you. And those who’ve never lost someone cannot and will not ever understand this.

This book is deep and so very personal. And I’m so thankful to Ms. Glasgow for sharing it with the world and with me.

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Shadow Sister

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Linday Marcott

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Haunted, haunted and more haunted. Deliciously so.

Ava and James grow up in a haunted house. It’s cool…until it’s not. Until it takes their mother and part of her childhood and somehow dumps a weird sister-in-law on her doorstep. Then, it’s just frightening.

I really enjoyed Lindsay Marcott’s last book, Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost. Her name is what drew me to reading this book. Then I read the synopsis and well, I’m a sucker for a good ghost story. This didn’t disappoint.

Shadow Sister has all the gothic horror feels. Creepy mansion with a dark history. Some strange characters, like Ava’s father and sister-in-law. Blackwood Mansion is written very much like a character on its own in this story. It lives and breathes and seems to move with the story with as much flesh and blood as the human people (and just as strange).

What worked well for me:

  • Gothic ghost story
  • Great atmosphere. Spooky and dark. It was hard to imagine the sun shining on this mansion at all. It always felt stormy.
  • Good backstory for the characters. Nice bit of growth for Ava and James.
  • Decent ending and nice wrap up.
  • Loved the multiple points of view. It was woven nicely so I didn’t feel lost at all.

What didn’t work for me:

  • It was a little predictable. I knew who “dun it” pretty quickly.
  • The history of the mansion didn’t seem to really play into the events that happened in Ava’s family.

Overall, this was a nice read. It’s a fast read so the pace is really good and you’re not left lingering too long in one place which it good. If you like gothic ghost stories, I would recommend this one!

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: